1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to pressurized conduits such as hoses and tubes, more particularly to systems and methods for protecting against human injury and loss of life due to catastrophic failures in the form of bursts or pin-hole failures in such high pressure fluid conduits, and specifically to a sleeve and collar safety assembly that encloses the length of a high pressure conduit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known within the hydraulics industry, injury resulting from hose bursts and pin-hole leaks can occur in a matter of milliseconds. Hydraulic systems may operate at very high pressures and a leak of pressurized fluid can penetrate the skin, causing severe tissue damage and burns.
Hydraulic hoses, especially those found on construction equipment, tractors and other equipment, are exposed and therefore vulnerable to wear, which can result in leakage and failure. While a protective encasement, or sleeve, can help reduce wear of a hydraulic hose due to abrasion, a sleeve on its own does not prevent high pressure streams from bursting through the sleeve itself. In the past, problems that have affected the design of such systems have included hose pin hole streams or bursts as well as whipping, where an unmitigated flow of fluid from the end of a hose causes uncontrolled movement of the hose and hose end, posing great danger to an operator. Under high operating pressures or heavy weight, the hose and/or fitting can come loose or blow off the hose, causing the end of the hose to whip with great force.
In those situations where wear is unavoidable, rigid spiral hose protectors, spiral plastic sleeves and cloth hose sleeves are sometimes used to help prevent wear. Prior nylon protective sleeves comprising mesh tubing can be slid over single hoses or bundles of hoses and held in place with plastic cable ties or other similar fasteners. These sleeves somewhat help to protect hose from wear and may prolong the life of the hose.
Protection methods for high pressure fluid conduits such as hydraulic pipe, tube, and hose, are known. Such protection typically includes a tubular encasement that is overlaid on the outer surface of the conduit, extends substantially over the full length of the conduit, and may be attached to one or both distal ends of the conduit. Other hose protection systems involve outer metal armoring with a bonded coupling. These currently available high pressure conduit protection methods and systems do not protect against pressure build up of the escaped fluid behind the encasements. The resulting damage to the encasement and/or subsequent release of a high pressure stream and or mist of dangerous fluid renders the encasement virtually useless for protection to operators or bystanders. Further, some prior available high pressure conduit safety assemblies employ removable fasteners for an encasement surrounding a hydraulic conduit. This is a dangerous situation because should the sleeve become detached from the conduit, the operator would be directly exposed to conduit failure. Also, these methods of hose protections are bulky and highly reduce the flexibility of the hose assembly. In the case of metal enclosures, their bulk and inflexibly render their use impractical in certain applications requiring flexible connection.
One example of a flexible protection assembly for high pressure hoses can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,624 to Rider. Rider attempts to provide protection to equipment operators (and persons standing nearby) by providing a blow-out guard that comprises a double layer of material and wire sheath fixedly attached over an end portion of the hose. The goal of this system in anticipation of a hose burst is to allow the fluid to escape through interstices of the wire sheath, with the intent of reducing the fluid stream to a fine spray. However, inhalation of certain fluids in the form of a spray or mist may be detrimental to one's health. Further, when the material carried by the hose is at a very high temperature or when the wire sheath suffers wear and/or fails to carry out its intended duty, danger arises without warning.